BIO: Nic Cody was born in Perth (WA) and began playing basketball as a junior with the Willetton basketball program.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Nic Cody made his NBL debut with the Perth Wildcats on 9/11/2014. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

In 2014, Cody joined the Wildcat’s as a development player with the team having retained almost their entire roster and looking to win back-to-back championships. Perth had re-signed Shawn Redhage (3 year deal) and saw Jermaine Beal, Damian Martin, Matthew Knight, Greg Hire and Tom Jervis all return. The team’s biggest loss came from losing star import James Ennis to the NBA, they were able to replace him with talented forward Deandre Daniels (14.8 points and 7.7 rebounds).

This season Redhage would relinquish the captaincy to Damian Martin and see Perth struggle through injuries all season. Most impacted was the team’s’ frontcourt as Knight (6 games), Hire (19 games) both missing games during the season and Redhage suffering from a stress fracture in his right foot which saw him miss the Wildcats’ entire finals campaign.

With the departure of Ennis, Beal (16.4 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.6 assists) became Perth’s main offensive weapon despite another slow start to the season. In the season opener against the New Zealand Breakers, he went 2-of-17 from the field, and on November 23 against Melbourne United, he went 0-of-10 from the field. Despite this coach Trevor Gleeson was confident Beal would deliver and then recorded some of his biggest games. These included a game-high 25 points to go with four assists and four steals in a 83–64 win over the Wollongong Hawks as well as his best two performances of the season in back to back games, scoring 29 points against the Townsville Crocodiles on November 14, then notching up 27 points against the Sydney Kings on November 16. On February 15, he scored 24 points in a 89–87 double-overtime loss to the Breakers. Beal was crucial in helping send the game into both overtime periods, and then put the Wildcat’s ahead 87–86 with two clutch free-throws in the dying moments of second overtime. The Breakers won the game with a buzzer-beating half-court shot from Cedric Jackson. Beal finished amongst the league’s top five scorers through the regular season finishing with 450 points, leading the league with 69 made three-pointers, and won the club’s MVP award at the end of the season.

The Wildcats’ banged up roster still managed to finish in fourth place (16–12) with Matthew Knight earning a spot on the All-NBL Second Team, and Damian Martin named the NBL’s Best Defensive Player for the fifth consecutive year at the end of season awards.

Perth were then swiftly eliminated by the Cairns in the semifinals. Even with Beal scoring 20 points in game one and 21 points in game two, the Wildcats’ had no answer for Taipans’ and star guard Scottie Wilbekin. Wilbekin tallied 28 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists in game one (71-64) and then backed it up with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists in game two (80-68).

Cody would see limited playing opportunities with the Wildcats, appearing in only three games and failing to score.

Nic Cody played one season in the NBL.

Dan Boyce (832 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.